Haseena Parkar Movie Review: Once Upon A Time In Nagpada…

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When it comes to films based on underworld figures, filmmakers have mostly focused on personalities like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, Dawood Ibrahim and Arun Gawli, but women connected to the underworld have been largely ignored.
However, director Apoorva Lakhia proves to be an exception to the rule with his latest film Haseena Parkar, which is based on the turbulent life of Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena. But will Haseena rule the box office this weekend? Read on…
Set primarily in Mumbai, ‘Haseena Parkar’ starts off with Haseena being summoned to court, facing charges of extortion and criminal intimidation. With 88 cases registered against her but a single court appearance to her name, the stage is set for her trial and her life to unfold in front of audiences. As the trial progresses, Apoorva offers a glimpse into the life of siblings Dawood and Haseena, their younger years, their family background and the way their life is affected by circumstances beyond their control, leaving it to the audience to decide whether the eponymous godmother was a victim of circumstances or a scheming woman who played the system.
Shraddha Kapoor, who has mostly played romantic roles in love stories, deserves kudos for taking up this challenge, and the actress delivers a powerful performance as Haseena. As the young Haseena, Shraddha has it easier and moulds herself well into the orthodox muslim avatar, albeit contrary to her earlier roles, here the drama quotient is higher, with a disciplinarian constable father and a wayward brother to deal with, creating early family bonds that penetrate into the young girl’s conscience and transform her in her later years; and as the older Haseena, while the foundation has been laid well in the character development, the actress has to don layers of make-up with silicone mouth implants that affect her performance, and while we learn Shraddha did put on weight to enact the older Haseena, alas it was not enough, as maybe the 5 kgs needed to be 20 kgs to change her poise and her gait (this explains why Aamir Khan as Mahavir Phogat did not rely on make-up and prosthetics but transformed himself completely to play the older Phogat, as tricks always tend to show). So there is a younger Shraddha peering through her older stoic stare of Haseena, and this dilutes the effort and the final portrayal, but nonetheless, this is her best performance to-date, limitations aside.
Her sibling Siddhanth Kapoor looks menacing enough as the older Dawood, and while it is a tall order to step into the Don’s shoes and play the character as it ages, the young actor does well, melting into the skin of the character and recording the progression of his inner revolt and the rise to power with a simmering resoluteness. Ankur Bhatia, who plays Haseena’s husband Ibrahim Parkar, is earnest enough to be impressive, shot early on in gang rivalry, a primary transforming factor of Haseena that brought her closer to the world of crime.
As for the plot, the subject is quite interesting and director Apoorva Lakhia along with his screenwriter Suresh Nair do not go for the conventional linear unfolding of a biopic but deploy the courtroom trial to go back and forth in unearthing the layers of an ordinary woman born in an honest policeman’s family, one of 12 siblings, with a brother who grows to become the most wanted man in the country. The shadow of crime darkens her life as she ages, taking first her husband and then her son away from her, and alongside taking her own inner soul, as she becomes a criminal born of circumstances beyond her control. Apoorva does not spend much screen time in showing Haseena’s inner conflicts, and this additional layer may have slowed down proceedings a bit but would have made the character more human, as the tragic sacrifices she suffers now remain mere chapters of a thriller and less of a character study, and we fail to empathize with the Godmother of Nagpada. But this may be by design, as you would be skating on thin ice if you would go out on a limb to humanize the sister of the most wanted and hated criminal in the country. So the director concentrates on a fast-paced narrative, making the thrills take center-stage, and throwing in well written one-liners of writer Chintan Gandhi for clap-tracks, hurtling the film along between past and present, well-aided by the crisp editing of Steven Bernard.
Special mention must also be made of production designer Sunil Nigvekar’s recreation of Nagpada and the neighbouring gullis and mohallas, captured in a rustic and gritty fashion by cinematographer Fasahat Khan, that aids well in creating the world of old Bombay where crime fashioned a new landscape. Apoorva is in his elements when crafting a crime thriller, with his technical expertise pulling together a taut film.
On the weaker side, there are a few unintentionally funny scenes in the film that could have been avoided. For example, the judge is shown with a fixed smile on his face throughout the proceedings, even when Haseena is sharing her tragic story in the courtroom. In another scene, a cop lands up at Haseena’s place to arrest her wayward son for a crime, but leaves without even searching the premises when she tells him that he is not home.
But nitpicking aside, the film has enough redeeming virtues, crafted and shot well, and if you are a fan of underworld flicks, go for Haseena, it may not have the high emotional drama of a Parinda or a Satya or a Company, but it has all the thrills.

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